There's an autmum spectacle that I've really longed to see for years and yesterday we managed it at long last.
I love wild geese but we only see a few where we live and only the very occassional pink foot or a whooper swan, so yesterday we travelled north to the reserve at Martinmere to see these lovely birds coming home for winter in their thousands.
It was truly brilliant. Just as we arrived an enormous cloud of honking, swirling pink foots circled the mere and came down to feed. Absolutely magical. The noise is tremendous and fills your entire head for ages.
Our boys were really taken by the whole spectacle and there was the bonus of ticking off some real rarities in the I Spy Birds book.
The hides along the lake shore are great, really simple but with stools just the right height, helpful field guides on the walls and some very knowledgeable wardens on hand too. On Friday night as dusk fell, apparently more than 20,000 pink foots had come in to roost!
This amazing double heights hide looks just like a goose in flight.
As well as the geese there are huge array of all sorts of wildfowl from across the world and otters and beavers too. These serene looking Bewick swans were definitely one of my favourites.
We had a fantastic time walking around the reserve which was really accessible for families and twitchers alike. The whole site is flat and ideal for pushchairs and wheelchairs too and a rather fabulous adventure playground appealed to our boys when the lure of the geese wore off.
Magical. Thank you Martinmere for a very special day.
14 comments:
Simply stunning. It must have been amazing IRL.
Amazing! I love birds!
What a smashing post Steph,Thanks for taking us with you,
Hope all's well
Best Wishes
Sue xxx
It looks like a good day out especially at this time of year :)
Sue Xx
Wow that looks fantastic! Great pictures :)
Wow, it looks amazing! Beautiful light in your photos.
Fantastic pictures! The reserves at this time of year are so busy with the birds coming and going and great entertainment for the children. Thank you for sharing.
Looks like a amazing day out!
We have a flock of Canadian geese that fly over us from a lake in our village to the canal everyday and they make quite a din, but to have that number of geese arriving, must be amazing!
Looks like such a lovely day. I'm new to your blog and loving your style, beautiful pics and feelgood vibe. Andrea
Oh, I would be in my element. I just love geese. To see them fly in, in such great numbers must be fantastic.
We used to live near Slimbridge, and visited often. But it was never on the scale as you have seen at Martinmere.
What a perfect sounding day out, my cup of tea exactly! Im loving being out and about right now, i absolutely LOVE Autumn!
Aqeela xx
I remember going there as a child, i really must take my lot for a visit!
We are at the totally locally market on Sunday if you get chance come and say hello!
Sara aka Kittyeden xx
Amazing! My kids would love to see such a wonderful place with all those birds. Wonderful - thank you for showing us. Hugs Nicole
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